RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REBUILDING THE ECONOMY IN LEBANON
SCHOOL Suliman S Olayan School of Business American University of Beirut
COUNTRY Lebanon
n 2024, Lebanon suffered greatly from the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Red Cross
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TIME SPENT ON HOUSEWORK HIGHLIGHTS GAP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN
estimates that 2,650 people were killed and 12,000 were injured, with more than one million people displaced. Alongside these troubling figures, Lebanon’s economic downturn has been placed at anywhere between 10 and 25 per cent. To help identify a path for recovery, academics from the American University of Beirut Jay Joseph and Raghda Kawass have put together eight recommendations, looking at the role of micro and small enterprises (MSEs). These include ensuring that peace- building efforts prioritise a reduction in intergroup differences to avoid tensions over any perceived economic advantages between local business owners and refugees. To do this, the researchers argue, governments should formalise informal economies by simplifying processes and offering incentives to register businesses. In a similar vein, governments must address widespread distrust of legal and regulatory systems, promoting transparency and improving services to encourage MSEs to adhere to legal standards and foster long-term peace. In addition, policymakers should look to strengthen community ties by promoting co-operative business practices that involve multiple stakeholders. EB
and personal activities (including education) between 2010 and 2019. Its findings demonstrate that while the country’s gender gap narrowed considerably in this timeframe, women still bear a disproportionate burden of household chores, while men spend more time on paid work and personal activities. Analysing the findings across five age groups, the researchers also discovered that these differences are most pronounced for the ages 30 to 39, which the authors relate to motherhood. The study underlines the need to promote changes in social and cultural norms to help generate conditions that will engender a more equitable distribution of household tasks. Affirming that education is also central to mitigating these inequalities, the authors conclude that promoting co-responsibility in domestic tasks will facilitate the professional development of women and the creation of a more just and productive society for all. TBD
SCHOOL Centrum, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) COUNTRY Peru
atin America has seen some of the largest changes in female labour force
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participation in the world over the past decade. In Peru, research from Centrum PUCP notes that the country’s female labour force participation rate rose from around 54 per cent at the turn of the millennium to 70 per cent in 2019, according to World Bank figures. However, there is still work to do. Entitled Gender Inequality in the Distribution of Time Across Life Stages , Centrum’s study was led by Beatrice Avolio, director and professor at Centrum PUCP. It explores how much time men and women in Peru spent on housework, paid work
8 Business Impact • ISSUE 1 • 2025
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